First in Future: Where Emerging Ideas Take Flight

It is the middle of March, which means it is time to talk about.....mechanical and aerospace engineering, and March Madness. The "Sweet Sixteen" stars today and our guest Professor Larry Silverberg from NCSU College of Engineering knows something that most basketball players are perfecting....what is the optimal way to shoot a free throw. We learn about the three revolutions of backspin and 52 degree angle and why not the center of the hoop.

First in Future begins our second season. Want to know how rural North Carolina’s doing these days? Well, here’s a statistic to think about: Last year, half the state’s rural counties gained jobs and half lost jobs, while the overwhelming majority of North Carolina’s suburban and rural counties gained jobs. Rural counties aren’t doing as well as urban areas, it seems, but the picture might be more complicated than you think, with some rural areas blossoming in the modern economy and others lagging behind. And if there’s anyone who knows the different chapters of rural North Carolina’s story, it’s Grant Godwin. Godwin currently serves as chair of the board of the Rural Economic Development Center after spending a long career in the private and public sector. A native North Carolinian, Grant grew up on a farm in Sampson County and learned some lessons that have lasted a lifetime. Take a listen as he tells them and maybe you can apply some to your own life. Also, if you’ve ever wondered how to safely approach a turkey, you’ll learn that today, too. This installment of First in Future is part of a special TV series produced in collaboration with UNC-TV, and recorded in UNC-TV’s studios. Taped segments will air on the North Carolina Channel. Visit www.ncchannel.org/schedule/ for specific air date.

Next month the Institute for Emerging Issues will be launching KidsREADY NC, a four county tier 1 and tier 2 focus on early childhood education. We will bring together, everyone who cares about early childhood and see what they can do if they get all the people in the same room. Get great information, set goals, and improve coordination. This week’s guest, Page Lemel, Vice Chair of the Transylvania County Commissioners, was an inspiration on "how to do it" and her approach to come together, discuss challenges and seek solutions in a collaborative way.

This week we wanted to revisit our conversation with Read Charlotte Executive Director Munro Richardson and his approach to tackling the goal of doubling the percentage of 3rd graders reading proficiently by 2025 in Charlotte. The Institute for Emerging Issues is getting ready to launch our new initiative, KidsReadyNC, in four communities across the state and wanted to hear Munro's thinking about the program. Afterwards, we also have a conversation with IEI's Assistant Director, Pat Cronin, who is heading up KidsReadyNC.

A few months ago, we heard from Abdul Rasheed, CEO of theWilliam C. Friday Fellowship for Human Relations, on how to make a difference in creating civil dialogue. We wanted to go back to that conversation to re-examine what it means to be a citizen and to be an active part of our community through leadership. Follow the conversation we will talk with IEI program and policy manager, Maggie Woods. This installment was part of a special 13-segment series produced in collaboration with UNC-TV, and recorded in UNC-TV’s Legislative Studio in downtown Raleigh. We are excited to share the First in Future podcast via traditional means and via taped segments to air on the North Carolina Channel! Visit www.ncchannel.org/schedule/ for specific air dates.

Frank Emory, of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, sat down with us in the summer of 2017 for us to discover many insights, such as the value to the sorts of questions Frank’s learned to ask as an attorney. We wanted to look back at that conversation and learn again about the value of building the bridge between the challenges of rural and urban areas and hear from Sarah Hall, Senior Manager of Policy at IEI, about some of the work on this issue. This installment was part of a special 13-segment series produced in collaboration with UNC-TV, and recorded in UNC-TV’s Legislative Studio in downtown Raleigh. We are excited to share the First in Future podcast via traditional means and via taped segments to air on the North Carolina Channel! Visit www.ncchannel.org/schedule/ for specific air dates.

Want to know how rural North Carolina’s doing these days? Well, here’s a statistic to think about: Last year, half the state’s rural counties gained jobs and half lost jobs, while the overwhelming majority of North Carolina’s suburban and rural counties gained jobs. Rural counties aren’t doing as well as urban areas, it seems, but the picture might be more complicated than you think, with some rural areas blossoming in the modern economy and others lagging behind. And if there’s anyone who knows the different chapters of rural North Carolina’s story, it’s Grant Godwin. Godwin currently serves as chair of the board of the Rural Economic Development Center after spending a long career in the private and public sector. A native North Carolinian, Grant grew up on a farm in Sampson County and learned some lessons that have lasted a lifetime. Take a listen as he tells them and maybe you can apply some to your own life. Also, if you’ve ever wondered how to safely approach a turkey, you’ll learn that today, too. This installment of First in Future is part of a special TV series produced in collaboration with UNC-TV, and recorded in UNC-TV’s studios. Taped segments will air on the North Carolina Channel. Visit www.ncchannel.org/schedule/ for specific air

If you’re looking for someone to give you a thorough political summary on the political history of North Carolina and where the Old North State stands in relation to its Southern neighbors, there’s no better person than John Hood. Hood, president of the Raleigh-based John William Pope Foundation, can also give you a few good pointers on how to speak to people who might think a little differently than you, and how to do it without yelling. The John William Pope foundation is a grantmaker that supports public policy organizations, educational institutions, arts and cultural programs, and humanitarian relief in North Carolina and beyond. Hood is also chairman of the board at the John Locke Foundation, a North Carolina think tank that issues reports, hosts events, produces broadcast programs, and publishes Carolina Journal, which serves an audience of nearly 150,000 North Carolinians through its print, online, and radio editions. This installment of First in Future is part of a special TV series produced in collaboration with UNC-TV, and recorded in UNC-TV’s Legislative Studio in downtown Raleigh. Taped segments will air on the North Carolina Channel. Visit www.ncchannel.org/schedule/ for specific air

Well before his passing, James. B. Duke already had a vision for his philanthropic legacy, and he created the Duke Endowment with specific issues he cared about in mind, such as the support of child welfare. This week’s First in Future guest, Rhett Mabry, president of the Duke Endowment, and talks to us about an upcoming program that will benefit from this legacy—the multi-year launch of an experimental initiative that explores what would happen if every child in a county who needed help in their early years received it. This installment of First in Future is part of a special TV series produced in collaboration with UNC-TV, and recorded in UNC-TV’s Legislative Studio in downtown Raleigh. Taped segments will air on the North Carolina Channel. Visit www.ncchannel.org/schedule/ for specific air dates.

Did North Carolina’s investments in pre-kindergarten programs like SmartStart make a difference for our state’s children? How long did the effects last? Did they make a substantial difference in the lives of the children? This week’s First in Future podcast guest, Ken Dodge, answers these questions. Dodge, a professor at the Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy, has studied the impact of our state’s early childhood investments by examining their effects on every student who has been through NC public schools since 1995. This installment of First in Future is part of a special TV series produced in collaboration with UNC-TV, and recorded in UNC-TV’s Legislative Studio in downtown Raleigh. Taped segments will air on the North Carolina Channel. Visit www.ncchannel.org/schedule/ for specific air dates.

Over the 31 years of the Emerging Issue Forum, we have had CEOs, governors, and presidents as speakers. The first time ever, we have booked a red, furry monster – Elmo. This week’s guest, Joy Potts, is accustomed to dressing up in a costume as the former Read-a-Roo for UNC-TV. She now has a bigger job as Director of Children’s Media and Educational Services at UNC-TV. This installment of First in Future is part of a special TV series produced in collaboration with UNC-TV, and recorded in UNC-TV’s Legislative Studio in downtown Raleigh. Taped segments will air on the North Carolina Channel. Visit www.ncchannel.org/schedule/ for specific air dates.

If you are talking to the smartest people in the state, you have to talk to David Reese. He’s figured out how to deliver a diverse group of services like arts education, afterschool programs, parent education and summer school with a limited budget to benefit and empower families. This week’s guest is the president and CEO of the East Durham Children’s Initiative. We talked about how do you help parents get more involved in their kid’s lives without getting in the way of their job as parents and how to work with partners to avoid duplication of services. This installment of First in Future is part of a special TV series produced in collaboration with UNC-TV, and recorded in UNC-TV’s Legislative Studio in downtown Raleigh. Taped segments will air on the North Carolina Channel. Visit www.ncchannel.org/schedule/ for specific air dates.

As we move into the new year, we sat down with former Governor Jim Hunt to try to exact some of what he has learned during his lifetime – about how to get change done, what North Carolina should aspire to be, and where he thinks we might still go as a state. This week’s conversation with Governor James B. Hunt is all about leadership, what he has learned about getting stuff done, focusing priorities, the role of religion in public life, and how he learns new ideas.

Through out his long service to the state, even former North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt’s opponents admit that he was a man perfectly suited to be Governor, and in his sixteen years as governor of North Carolina, he changed the state. This week we sat down with Governor James B. Hunt and talked about one big idea he had – starting the Emerging Issues Forum. Why he did it. What we can learn from how he thought about it. And how we can apply that to the way we learn.

The use of the evergreen trees to symbolize the arrival of winter goes back well beyond 2000 years. But over time they came to be one of the symbols of the holidays. Our special Podcast holiday edition, features our state’s favorite economist, Mike Walden and Tommy Burleson, the former 7’2.5” NC State center, who now farms North Carolina holiday trees. We have both men talking about the $100 million industry.